Tidbits
by TheWhittiePhantom
Summary: Short snippets of Jay integrating himself with his new world, his new life, and his new team. Post 2x02. Suggestions welcome.
1. Chapter 1

**So, I kind of love Jay. Until I get it out of my system, I may just right tiny chapters like this with assorted scenes that revolve around Jay and integrating to Earth-1 and Team Flash.**

 **Jitters**

Every coffee shop was a veritable hive of activity in the half-hour before work began, and Jitters was no exception. Customers bustled in and out, some sitting down with a mug to enjoy the distinctive aroma of a good cup of coffee, while others hastily grabbed to-go cups, and downed half of the cup on their way out. Murmured phrases of conversation between regulars and pleasantries from the workers floated upwards and mixed with the steam of the the coffee makers so that anyone sitting on the second floor could catch the odd word or two.

To be honest, Jay Garrick didn't exactly have the money to be spending on expensive coffee, but given the events of the past twenty-four hours, he felt that a minor celebration was in order. After six months of odd jobs, self-pity over losing his speed, and attempting to figure out who this world's Flash was, his prospects were beginning to look up. Caitlin had promised to put in a good word for him at Mercury Labs so that he could have a regular job in his field of choice, and he had finally made contact with Barry. Zoom was still out there, but at least now that he had delivered his warning, this world had a fighting chance.

Idly, Jay amused himself by watching wisps of steam curl in on themselves before finally evaporating into the air while he debated with himself over if he had enough motivation to go and pick up a copy of Central City Picture News. After a moment of contemplation, he walked over to the bin and snapped up a copy. When he walked back to the table, however, his table wasn't unoccupied.

Detective Joe West had sat down in the seat across from him, with an expectant look on his face. Inwardly, Jay sighed. This probably wasn't going to be good.

After a long drawn out silence from both men, Joe broke the increasingly awkward silence.

"I hear you're going to be spending quite a bit of time at Star Labs."

Jay nodded, trying to make sure he said the right thing. While he wasn't sure about the specifics about the bond between Barry and Detective West, it was clear that Barry looked up to him a lot. Anything he said to make Detective West nervous about his possible presence in Barry's life could be detrimental to forming a working relationship needed to take out Zoom. "I hope so."

The lines around Joe's mouth tightened. "You know about the last person who came to Barry and told him that he had all the answers?"

Jay nodded. "He told me that someone he idolized murdered his mother."

Glad that he didn't have to explain, Joe took a sip of coffee and continued. "Barry relies a lot on the advice and opinions of the people around him; he doesn't mind trusting other people to work out solutions for him if he thinks that they are more educated in the field where the decision needs to be made. He defers to Cisco in matters of engineering. He usually listens to Caitlin in medical matters. My concern is what area Barry decides you are an authority in."

Jay could appreciate forthrightness, and he responded just as succinctly. "I don't know what Barry thinks of me, and I don't know how Barry will come to view me. What I do know is the threat facing him, and I have foreknowledge of the metas coming through the breach. Instead of letting him explore aspects of his powers by himself, he can be coached to come into his abilities faster and safer with me there."

Joe almost rolled his eyes. "This isn't a job interview."

Jay gave him a half smile. "Sure feels like it is."

Both men gave a humorless chuckle that helped clear the air a little bit and break the tension. After a second long silence filled with long slurps, Joe tossed his empty cup in the wastebasket a few feet away. "Just know that Barry doesn't do anything halfway. He either locks you in a cell or offers to be a roommate. If you really want to do this, you can't go halfway either."

Jay laughed, a real one this time. "I decided it was a good idea to zip around in a red uniform and my Dad's old helmet to fight crime. I've sort of forgot how to do things halfway."

Joe's face had shifted to one of grudging approval. Apparently, he had liked what he had heard. "So, is Central City's baseball team still pretty good in your world?"

For a minute, Jay's face looked several years younger. "Yep. When I left, they were entering the playoffs for World Series. But the football team.. ," Jay shuddered.

Joe put his face in his hands. "Guess they must suck in every world."

 **Dinner**

"Huh," said Barry, staring at the glass case containing the defeated form of his most recent foe . "Killer psychic starfish. I did not see that coming."*

Cisco made tsk'ing noises from behind him. "I'm pretty sure the laws of probability guaranteed that it would happen eventually."

Caitlin popped into the cortex with cream for Barry's arm. Despite the fact that it was nowhere close to the most serious injury Barry had ever sustained in his career as superhero/klutz/someone who runs at the speed of sound with his shoes untied, she was concerned about the possibility of the injuries from the starfish's suckers going untreated.

Jay tapped the side of the container and watched the starfish change color in anger. "Well, at least we know that Zoom didn't send these guys after you."

Barry cocked his head, puzzled. "Then how did you know that they were physic starfish before we even went out there?"

Jay shrugged. "I fought a much larger version of these guys on my earth. Big enough to carry spears and everything. I'm guessing that the versions on your earth are smaller."

Cisco stopped looking up starfish diets in Wikipedia. "Hold up. You fought a massive Starfish who carried a spear and had psychic powers on your world?"

"Yup."

"Sweet."

Barry was intrigued. "Did you also use quicklime to stop..it?"

Jay nodded, happy with the audience. "A lot of buckets of it, yeah. Took forever, and I hadn't really felt so ridiculous in my entire life. I was just trying to run in and out of the creature's mental sphere of influence with buckets of quicklime. By the way, it's a he. Called himself Starro the Conquerer."

Barry just threw up his hands, the international gesture for _I give up._

Cisco grabbed the glass container and moved to take it to a freezer where Starro couldn't reproduce. "We should totally just start comparing stories. See if we know anyone in common between our two worlds."

Before Jay could protest, Barry's eyes lit up. "Yeeeessss. We are doing this, and we are doing this tonight. I volunteer Joe's house."

Which is how Jay found himself dragged into Barry's living room carrying a salad that he picked up from the supermarket. While he had been investigating Barry to decide if he was the Flash or not, he had spent a scary amount of hours staking out his home. However, this was the first time he had been inside, and he couldn't help himself but stare at everything that his eyes could soak in, even as Barry, the perfect host, took his jacket and offered him a pop.

In his own world, he had been single, and lived in a tiny apartment that he didn't use much anyway due to his extracurricular activities. In this world, he lived in an even tinier apartment due to his lack of a credit score, bank records, social security number, or pretty much anything that legitimate landlords required from their tenants.

The room was warm and bright, both by design and the obvious signs that a family had made their home here. Multiple photographs littered the tables and walls. Earlier ones displayed Iris, Joe, and a woman who was presumably Mrs. West. Then Barry began appearing in the photos. One of the biggest ones in one of the nicest frames showed Iris on a snow sled, shrieking with laughter and Barry face down in the snow next to her for no apparent reason.

Caitlin came up behind him and linked her arm through his. "You might want to come to the table. Barry will never say it, but he wants to begin eating. I'm surprised he didn't already start."

The mood of the house was already starting to affect him, because his heart already felt lighter. "Well, let's not keep him waiting." He hefted the salad that he held in his other hand for emphasis.

The discussion began as more of a, "Do you know so-and-so...no? Darn," but quickly progressed into a discussion of situations that Team Flash had gotten mixed up in before he came.

"Seriously? A gorilla?" he asked, incredulously.

Caitlin held up a hand. "You are okay with starfish, but not Gorillas?"

Joe looked a little scarred at the mention of Grodd. "Worst night of my life," he muttered.

Barry's fork contained a huge helping of lasagna stopped its journey halfway to Barry's mouth. "Just be glad you didn't get it has bad as Eiling did. Hey, maybe next time one of Eiling's goons comes around, we can threaten to toss them into a pit with Grodd. See if they believe that we'll do it."

Joe narrowed his eyes. "No," he said, very firmly.

"Yes," said Cisco, at the same time.

Full and contented for the first time in recent memory, Jay leaned back in his chair with a satisfied little noise and watched as a piece of Iris's potato casserole was catapulted through the air and smacked Barry in the face, who promptly grabbed a piece of asparagus and hurled it right back without hesitation.

Family, thought Jay. That's what this felt like. It felt like family.

 ***This is a thing. Starro was the first villain that the Justice League ever faced. I demand that Starro becomes a thing in the show.**

 **Suggestions are welcome!**


	2. Chapter 2

I'm back! The two suggestions I got were to do a little more with culture shock and Jay moving in with someone, and the six months before episode one. The first one is my answer to the living suggestion, and I'm already writing outlines for the other two. (Although the Culture Shock think will probably be a constant element)

 **Moving In**

While Jay had never been someone who got bent out of shape every time a wrench was thrown onto his plans, he liked routine. Every morning he got up at six-thirty and ran laps around the United States until seven-fifteen. He then had a quick shower, heated up coffee, and munched on toast. By eight o' clock he was dressed and ready to begin his work day. Lunch was always at the diner across from his lab, and when he got home from work and his..ah...extracurriculars, it was close to midnight. Depending on his mood, he would either read a little, watch a movie, or head straight to bed.

The wormhole changed all that.

Oh, he still continued to get up as early as possible, and his life had gotten infinitely easier ever since on of Barry's hacker friends (See no evil) had put him into the system. Equipped with the necessary documents to get a job, his prospects had turned up. Barry had offered to employ him at S.T.A.R Labs since he technically owned the place, but Jay turned him down. He wanted to actually work, to have a job that he got on his own merits and that didn't feel like charity. Barry had understood needing to not only prove to others what you were capable of, but the need to prove it to yourself. There were still people at the CCPD who believed that Barry only got the job he had because of Joe.

Plus, there was a dark voice that plagued him in the place between sleep and wakefulness that told him that he needed to start putting down roots here, because there was a chance that he wasn't going home.

He was hired almost immediately by Dr. McGee. Apparently, she wanted to place together a team to investigate the Q-Virus, and after a recommendation from Caitlin-Dr. Snow-the job offer fell in his lap. So now, his mornings consisted of waking up, a quick jog around the city, then leaving with Caitlin at about five to arrive at S.T.A.R Labs to participate in Team Flash activities.

The real difference between his old schedule and his new one was the speed of his morning jogs and where he fell asleep. Now, it was anyone's guess where he fell asleep. Once in a while he made it home and fell asleep in his bed. More often than that he passed out at S.T.A.R Labs. Once he fell asleep at Mercury Labs.

After Joe placed a blanket on his couch specifically for Jay, he knew he had to look into a place that wasn't so far removed from the main part of the city. After a few fruitless weeks of trying to find a place that didn't have nosy neighbors, affordable, and was close to S.T.A.R Labs, Barry made him a proposition.

"I know you said you didn't want to room with any of us, " he began, rather nervously. "But, I was thinking. You know how Harrison Wells left everything he had to me?"

Jay nodded. Hey, if you had to be targeted by a sociopath speedster, he might as well leave you all of his earthly belongings after you defeated him.

Barry shifted a little, a sure sign of nervousness with him. "Ahh..He..Welll...You know..I was thinking…,"

Here it goes, thought Jay.

Barry finally worked up the courage for what he was wanted to say. "His house. I have been trying to sell it, but no one wants it, for obvious reasons. I was thinking..do you want it? I mean, you didn't know the guy, and we could totally redecorate. It's pretty close to S.T.A.R Labs, and he didn't have any neighbors. It's also pretty roomy, so we could upgrade it a little to make it a little headquarters in case S.T.A.R Labs ever got discovered, or you know, the massive breach ate it."

Jay crossed him arms and lifted an eyebrow. "You want me to move into the house of your mother's murderer?"

Barry lifted his chin a little and stared right back. "I think it solves a lot of problems. You get a house with your name on it for cheap that matches the description for your situation. I don't have an empty house to deal with. Win-Win."

For some dumb reason he said yes. Almost instantly he was whisked off by the rest of the team to redecorate. Apparently, none of them had really ever been over his house all that often, so it wasn't as weird of a situation as it could have been. (This was shown when Cisco got lost trying to drive them all there.) The house had everything electronic stripped and re-installed, courtesy of Cisco and Barry, who were both convinced that there was a possibility that Harrison Wells transferred his soul to his house and would be released if someone plugged in a blender. He would probably think it was hilarious, if he wasn't just as scared of Zoom.

Then came the redecorating. Personally, even though he thought the house was a little to grand for his tastes, it could have been left as it was, but Caitlin insisted. Clarissa, Dr. Stein's wife, also decided to get involved and then suddenly, to Jay's chagrin, it became a big deal what his living space looked like. He didn't care what color the paint was, what material his drapes were made of, or if his bedspread was solid or multicolored. However, Caitlin and Mrs. Stein had bonded over their husbands being a nuclear reactor and delighted in having something to work on together.

Well, at least they were happy.

Suspiciously, after exactly a week after living in his new house, mugs that weren't his started popping up in his cabinet. It started with a dark brown one with blue polka-dots that he recognized as Caitlin's. Then a red utilitarian one that was clearly Barry's appeared in his sink. To his pleasure, every time someone made coffee in his kitchen, they left the rest of whatever bag of coffee beans that they had been using so that they could dip from the same bag every time they came back.

Then came the clothes.

The house/mini mansion was huge, so he didn't mind that people crashed at his house. In fact, he felt that having such a different living situation helped him adjust to his new life He had gone from an isolated life to one where random members of team Flash not only randomly crashed at his place, but were comfortable enough with him to stash their clothes around his house.

One morning, as he walked into the kitchen area as he pulled a hoodie over his head in preparation for his morning jog, he froze.

Barry's head was resting on his counter, with the running computer in front of his face casting an eerie blue light over his sharp features. Caitlin was curled up on the couch with highlighted research for a Mercury Labs project on the coffee table. Without hesitating, he strode over and covered her thin form with a large fuzzy blanket that Detective West had given him as a housewarming gift after explaining that Hallmark didn't make, 'Welcome to our earth," cards. He didn't even bother looking for Cisco-he knew he was here, but he could be anywhere. They guy could sleep anywhere, something that he found out after a memorable incident involving the bathtub.

He wasn't bothered by the random appearance of Team Flash. Cross his heart and hope to die. What really bothered him was the stray thought that crossed his mind before any other:

 _I wouldn't mind being stuck here forever._

That scared him even more than Zoom.

 **Sleepwalking**

"Is this really necessary?" whined Barry, who had already started to unroll his sleeping bag.

"Yes," said Joe emphatically, who was no doubt trying to forget the state of chaos that his house was in right now. Sleep tornadoes made a _mess._ Beside him, Jay was trying to hide a small smile.

"Role reversal, much?" he asked Barry.

"Shut up," scowled Barry, who didn't like being locked in one of the evil metahuman cells very much. "This sucks."

"It's for your own good," admonished Caitlin, who was finishing syncing up all of the data sources on her data. With a beep, Barry's stats came to life on her screen. "We can't have you sleepwalking around Central City. "

Cisco, who up until this point had been hanging back, piped up. "He's not speed walking. He's speed running."

Caitlin ignored him while continuing to plug in numbers into the program with her finger. "If you slow down while speeding around in your sleep, and people see that Barry Allen has super speed, it will not be long until people connect the dots and everyone knows who the Flash is."

Barry, who had made himself a tiny fort of blankets in the cell, threw up his hands. "Then why haven't I had this issue before?"

Jay made a little motion with his hands. "I didn't have this problem until I had my powers for almost a year. It could be your powers maturing. In both psychology and biology, most advances happen on a pretty regular timetable regardless of outside influences."

"Then why can't I just do the same thing you did to beat this?"

"We tried handcuffing you to the bed, remember? You sleep-vibrated right out of them before running to Wyoming! I never vibrated out of my handcuffs. And I only had to wear them for a week before my body adjusted and stopped running everywhere will-nilly at night."

Barry sighed and dramatically threw himself back onto his blanket fort as best as he could in the cell.

Caitlin took pity on him. "Look, the power-dampener stops you from escaping, and I can monitor your vitals from here. We should know how to deal with this problem tomorrow morning."

She didn't get a reply. Barry was already out.

Later that night, as he and Caitlin were sharing a plate of scones that Iris had brought them from Jitters, her tablet beeped. After wiping her hands off on a napkin, she picked up her tablet and gave it an odd look. "What the.."

Jay held out his hands. "May I?"

Caitlin nodded and handed it over. Jay took the tablet and took a brief glance at the vitals, then saw it. "Look at the brain scans. He's cycling in and out his sleep cycles way too fast, even for a speedster."

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "So, basically, our diagnosis is that Barry has having too short of sleep cycles. Probably caused by stress, and his growing powers are just not mixing well."

"Normally such problems can be solved by a different sleep schedule that might be forced by, let's say, handcuffs holding someone in place, but that could take awhile," added Jay.

Caitlin snapped her long fingers. "Melatonin pills. Might help his body regulate the timing of his sleep cycles. I can order them tonight," she said as she stood up and grabbed an order form.

"Might be a bit late for that," commented Jay blithely as he watched the security cam for Barry's cell.

Before Caitlin could ask what he meant, a sound boom erupted from the basement and a blur of yellow lighting sped by her.

"That's going to leave a bruise," said Jay, as he studied the hole that Barry had managed to create as he rammed through the cell door.

"How did he even do that with the power dampener on?"

Jay titled his head in thought. "It could be that his powers aren't entirely rooted in his biology. He's also drawing from the speed force. Maybe the power dampener caused his asleep brain to believe that he was trapped and he pulled on reserves."

Cailin pulled her cell phone from her pocket. "I'm calling Joe."

Jay mimicked the motion and pulled out his own cell phone-an item he was still getting used to. "I'm going to call the ice cream parlor that Barry just into and ask them to shove the weird guy who just came in into a freezer. That might stall him until we get there and can hopefully wake him up."

(He decided not to mentioned that this was not an original idea-the people of his world had shoved him into a freezer at the back of a Wal-Mart.)

 **Co-Workers**

Captain Singh was not stupid. For the most part, he had a pretty good idea of what went on in his department. He knew who liked who, who worked well together, and who might shoot each other. He thought that Barry, smart as he was, needed to work on several things before he promoted him.

Namely, his reputation.

Up until recently, he was social poison. Despite being a person of science, he would rant and rave about the impossible to anyone who would listen. Singh noticed how Joe would subtly cover his face whenever Barry made an offhanded comment about criminals having the ability to possibly walk through walls or toss lightning. The other CSI's thought he was a joke and a conspiracy theorist and made him a target for any practical joke that the department could dream up.

Barry, to his credit, took it all in stride. He ignored the comments made about him, and continued on with his work. That was the first thing that made Singh notice him-future department heads needed to be able to take criticism. It didn't help Barry's case when recruiters such as STAR Labs and Queen Consolidated sent him offers to work in their applied sciences divisions, and not anyone else.

Then Dr. Harrison Wells became interested in Barry. Suddenly, the other CSI's wanted to know what was going on with Barry to warrant such attention. Just because he blew up the the city didn't mean that he didn't still have the best equipment in the world, and Barry was able to burn through his workload much quicker because he had access to such technology.

Then the revelations about Nora Allen's murder came to light.

Everyone knew that Barry's mentor killed his mother.

Barry didn't seem to mind as much as everyone thought he would. He seemed more upset over the death of Detective Thawne than the fact that his mentor was a killer. He seemed more resigned to it that anything. For the first time, the CSI department corralled around Barry and stopped anyone from bothering him. Things were looking up.

Then came the bar.

It wasn't so much a bar as a place that served good food and lots of it for cheap. It had become an unspoken tradition for half the precinct to eat dinner together there when a major case was shut. The alcohol selection was terrible, but plenty of people drank it anyway. It was the liberal intake of this particular beverage that caused one of the shadow CSI's to stumble over to Barry's table.

Barry was eating with his usual crowd; Iris, Mr. Ramon, Dr. Snow, and a classically handsome man who Singh hadn't seen before, the only non-cops in attendance.

The drunken shadow, Daniel, his name was, said something inaudible to Barry. Whatever it was, it caused everyone sitting around him to freeze. Joe clearly hadn't heard what was said either, but he stood up after he saw the commotion.

Barry's face was drawn and tight with anger, but he made no move to defend himself. Both Mr. Ramon and Dr. Snow made as if to stand up fight for their friend, but Barry waved them back with a defeated look on his face. His thoughts were evident to everyone in sight. _It's no use._

The blonde man, however, ignored Barry and drew himself up to his own impressive height. Going off looks alone, he didn't appear to be someone who Barry would normally hang out with, but going by the silent exchange exchanged between him and Barry, they knew each other well.

The man didn't get angry, but fixed Daniel with a look of cool detachment that made it clear that whatever he said better be retracted right away. Barry was sending him panicked shutupshutupshutup messages, but they weren't getting through.

Whatever Daniel said in response evidently wasn't what the man wanted to hear, and Singh wasn't sure he wanted to know what was said based on the faces of everyone within earshot.

Without hesitation the man grabbed Barry's shoulders and frogmarched him out of the area, with his posse in pursuit. Before the group had reached the door, he had shifted so that he had one arm around Barry's shoulders in a comforting gesture.

The next morning Daniel came into work with a black eye. Rumors flew around the police department, and they eventually settled into the theory that the man was Barry's cousin. Barry himself later confirmed the rumors by answering that Jay (he had a name now) was his cousin, "In a sense", although Singh, who had seen Barry's files several times, knew that he only had female cousins.

You can never have too many people looking out for you, thought Singh.


End file.
